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Linux Kernel 6.12 Has Been Released

Slashdot unixbhaskar writes: Linus has released a fresh Linux kernel for public consumption. Please give it a try and report any glitches to the maintainers for improvement. Also, please do not forget to express your appreciation to those tireless folks who did all the hard work for you. The blog OMG Ubuntu calls it "one of the most biggest kernel releases for a while," joking that it's a "really real-time kernel." The headline feature in Linux 6.12 is mainline support for PREEMPT_RT. This patch set dramatically improves the performance of real-time applications by making kernel processes pre-emptible — effectively enabled proper real-time computing... Meanwhile, Linus Torvalds himself contributes a new method for user-space address masking designed to claw back some of the performance lost due to Spectre-v1 mitigations. You might have heard that kernel devs have been working to add QR error codes to Linux's kernel panic BSOD screen (as a waterfall of error text is often cut off and not easily copied for ad-hoc debugging). Well, Linux 6.12 adds support for those during Direct Rendering Manager panics... A slew of new RISC-V CPU ISA extensions are supported in Linux 6.12; hybrid CPU scaling in the Intel P-State driver lands ahead of upcoming Intel Core Ultra 2000 chips; and AMD P-State driver improves AMD Boost and AMD Preferred Core features. More coverage from the blog 9to5Linux highlights a new scheduler called sched_ext, Clang support (including LTO) for nolibc, support for NVIDIA's virtual command queue implementation for SMMUv3, and "an updated cpuidle tool that now displays the residency value of cpuidle states for a clearer and more detailed view of idle state information when using cpuidle-info." Linux kernel 6.12 also introduces SWIG bindings for libcpupower to make it easier for developers to write scripts that use and extend the functionality of libcpupower, support for translating normalized error addresses reported by an AMD memory controller into system physical addresses using a UEFI mechanism called platform runtime mechanism (PRM), as well as simplified loading of microcode patches on AMD Zen and newer CPUs by using the family, model, and stepping encoded in the patch revision number... Moreover, Linux 6.12 adds support for running as a protected guest on Android as well as perf and support for a bunch of new interconnect PMUs. It also adds the final conversions to the new Intel VFM CPU model matching macros, rewrites the PCM buffer allocation handling and locking optimizations, and improves the USB audio driver...

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Intel Sees a 3888.9% Performance Improvement in the Linux Kernel - From One Line of Code

An anonymous reader shared this report from Phoronix: Intel's Linux kernel test robot has reported a 3888.9% performance improvement in the mainline Linux kernel as of this past week... Intel thankfully has the resources to maintain this automated service for per-kernel commit/patch testing and has been maintaining their public kernel test robot for years now to help catch performance changes both positive and negative to the Linux kernel code. The commit in question causing this massive uplift to performance is mm, mmap: limit THP alignment of anonymous mappings to PMD-aligned sizes. The patch message confirms it will fix some prior performance regressions and deliver some major uplift in specialized cases... That mmap patch merged last week affects just one line of code. This week the Register also reported that Linus Torvalds revised a previously-submitted security tweak that addressed Spectre and Meltdown security holes, writing in his commit message that "The kernel test robot reports a 2.6 percent improvement in the per_thread_ops benchmark."

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Linus Torvalds Comments On The Russian Linux Maintainers Being Delisted

Ancient Slashdot reader szo shares a report from Phoronix: Quietly merged into this week's Linux 6.12-rc4 kernel was a patch that removes a number of kernel maintainers from being noted in the official MAINTAINERS file that recognizes all of the driver and subsystem maintainers. [...] [Greg Kroah-Hartman who authored the patch] simply commented in there: "Remove some entries due to various compliance requirements. They can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided." [...] The commonality of all these maintainers being dropped? They appear to all be Russian or associated with Russia. Most of them with .ru email addresses. Linux creator Linus Torvalds has since commented on the situation: Ok, lots of Russian trolls out and about. It's entirely clear why the change was done, it's not getting reverted, and using multiple random anonymous accounts to try to "grass root" it by Russian troll factories isn't going to change anything. And FYI for the actual innocent bystanders who aren't troll farm accounts - the "various compliance requirements" are not just a US thing. If you haven't heard of Russian sanctions yet, you should try to read the news some day. And by "news," I don't mean Russian state-sponsored spam. As to sending me a revert patch - please use whatever mush you call brains. I'm Finnish. Did you think I'd be *supporting* Russian aggression? Apparently it's not just lack of real news, it's lack of history knowledge too.

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Linus Torvalds Growing Frustrated By Buggy Hardware, Theoretical CPU Attacks

jd writes: Linus Torvalds is not a happy camper and is condemning hardware vendors for poor security and the plethora of actual and theoretical attacks, especially as some of the new features being added impact the workarounds. These workarounds are now getting very expensive, CPU-wise. TFA quotes Linus Torvalds: "Honestly, I'm pretty damn fed up with buggy hardware and completely theoretical attacks that have never actually shown themselves to be used in practice. "So I think this time we push back on the hardware people and tell them it's *THEIR* damn problem, and if they can't even be bothered to say yay-or-nay, we just sit tight. Because dammit, let's put the onus on where the blame lies, and not just take any random shit from bad hardware and say 'oh, but it *might* be a problem.'"

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Linus Torvalds Asks Kernel Devs To Write Better Git Merge Commit Messages

Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports: Yesterday when announcing the Linux 6.12-rc2 kernel, Linus Torvalds asked that the kernel maintainers do a better job moving forward with their commit messages. In particular, Torvalds is hoping that kernel maintainers will do a better job using an active, imperative voice when describing the changes within their pull requests. The Linux creator explained in the 6.12-rc2 announcement: "Anyway, on a completely different note: I try to make my merge commit messages be somewhat "cohesive", and so I often edit the pull request language to match a more standard layout and language. It's not a big deal, and often it's literally just about whitespace so that we don't have fifteen different indentation models and bullet syntaxes. I generally do it as I read through the text anyway, so it's not like it makes extra work for me. But what *does* make extra work is when some maintainers use passive voice, and then I try to actively rewrite the explanation (or, admittedly, sometimes I just decide I don't care quite enough about trying to make the messages sound the same). So I would ask maintainers to please use active voice, and preferably just imperative. [...]"

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Arch Linux Is Now Working Directly With Valve

The Arch Linux team has announced a collaboration with Valve, working to support critical infrastructure projects like a build service and secure signing enclave for the Arch Linux distribution. Tom's Hardware reports: If you're familiar with Valve and Steam Deck, you may already know that the Deck uses SteamOS 3, which is built on top of Arch Linux. Thanks to the Arch Linux base and Valve's development of the Proton compatibility layer for playing Windows games on Linux, we now have a far improved Linux gaming scene, especially on Valve's Steam Deck and Deck OLED handhelds. While Valve's specific reasons for picking Arch Linux for Steam Deck remain unknown, it's pretty easy to guess why it was picked. Mainly, it's a particularly lightweight distribution maintained since March 2002, which lends itself well to gaming with minimal performance overhead. A more intensive Linux distribution may not have been the ideal base for SteamOS 3, which is targeted at handhelds like Steam Deck first. As primary Arch Linux developer Levente Polyak discloses in the announcement post, "Valve is generously providing backing for two critical projects that will have a huge impact on our distribution: a build service infrastructure and a secure signing enclave. By supporting work on a freelance basis for these topics, Valve enables us to work on them without being limited solely by the free time of our volunteers." Polyak continues, "This opportunity allows us to address some of the biggest outstanding challenges we have been facing for a while. The collaboration will speed up the progress that would otherwise take much longer for us to achieve, and will ultimately unblock us from finally pursuing some of our planned endeavors [...] We believe this collaboration will greatly benefit Arch Linux, and are looking forward to share further development on the mailing list as work progresses."

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Célébrons les 21 ans des Linux-Meetup au Québec

🎉 Il y a plus de deux décennies, j’ai lancé mon tout premier Linux-Meetup à Montréal en mai 2003. Depuis, chaque premier mardi du mois, nous avons tenu 252 rencontres sans interruption, rassemblant des passionnés du monde Linux.

🚀 Le samedi 21 septembre 2024, nous fêterons 21 ans de partage autour de Linux et des logiciels libres au Québec ! Cet événement coïncide avec la Journée internationale des logiciels libres (SoftwareFreedomDay), offrant une visibilité mondiale inégalée. Ce sera l’occasion de célébrer cette communauté qui s’est agrandie au fil des années et de marquer cette étape importante dans l’histoire du logiciel libre.

📈 Chaque année, notre événement annuel devient de plus en plus grand grâce à l’appui de nos commanditaires. Avec une participation record de 150 passionnés l’an dernier et le soutien de 23 commanditaires visionnaires.

🌐 L’événement se tiendra en présentiel à l’école de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), à l’université et en virtuelle sur BigBlueButton, permettant à la communauté Linux francophone de participer d’où qu’elle soit.

💼 Si votre entreprise utilise Linux ou soutient les logiciels libres, c’est une occasion unique de promouvoir vos solutions et vos services auprès d’une audience ciblée et engagée. Rejoignez-nous comme commanditaire et bénéficiez d’une visibilité accrue au sein de la communauté. Contactez-moi rapidement pour discuter de votre participation !

🚩 Pour les plus aventureux, la cinquième édition de notre chasse au trésor informatique (CTF : CaptureTheFlag) sera de retour avec des défis inédits, conçus par Dominique Derrier et Pascal Gad. Cet événement interactif mettra vos compétences Linux à l’épreuve et promet des moments captivants pour les participants.

🗣️ Au programme : des présentations passionnantes des experts Linux, le CTF et des opportunités d’échanges avec la communauté, et bien plus encore.

🎟️ Ne manquez pas cette opportunité unique de vous inscrire et de découvrir l’agenda complet à https://www.rencontres-linux.quebec/event/21-ans-de-linux-meetup-au-quebec-1/

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